Looking at the Merits

Jeanine Pirro is taking a beating today for her reluctance to double check DNA evidence of an inmate who was released from prison today…16 years after he went to jail.

Pirro’s campaign for attorney general is based entirely on her crime-fighting record, and this kind of story highlights the difference between the quantity and quality of her service.

But as bad as this is, Pirro isn’t unique. Associate Justice Angela M. Mazzarelli of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division has an interesting anecdote about another district attorney who refused to look at an inmate’s paperwork because it was 21 pages long, single spaced, and written by hand.

“The response from the district attorney was, ‘We can’t read this. We’re not going to respond to this,'” Mazzarelli recalled at a judicial forum in Manhattan on Monday.

“They asked me to dismiss it on that basis,” she said.

“I could read it…you have to respond to it. I’m going to look at the merits.”

Before the district attorney could respond, the inmate was released because of DNA evidence.